The best recipes for using up hard-cooked Easter eggs

Here comes Peter Cottontail…and with him comes an abundance of colorfully dyed hard-cooked eggs! It might be loads of fun for kids to color dozens of eggs this week, but it can also be a challenge to come up with ways to use them after the Easter egg hunt is over. If you are faced with baskets of pastel-colored beauties, try some of these ideas:

Pickled eggs are a great way to use up a surplus of eggs because they last up to six months if kept refrigerated in the pickling brine. Try Pickled Eggs with Beets for tasty eggs with a beautiful springtime pink color. You can also easily pickle just a few eggs in the leftover pickle juice from your favorite jar brand. Just make sure the eggs are completely covered in juice and keep covered in the refrigerator for at least a week before eating. Like spice? Add a dash or two of hot sauce to the pickle juice.

Gribiche Sauce is a classic French sauce that tastes like a deviled egg because it uses a base of hard cooked eggs instead of raw eggs. It goes together quickly in a food processor if you are short on time. Use it on top of grill asparagus, roasted fish or chicken or on top of a baked sweet potato.

Place several eggs and a tablespoon or two of your favorite salt-free seasoning such as Taco, pizza, Italian or lemon pepper seasoning in a sealed plastic bag. Shake to coat completely and enjoy as an afternoon snack on the go.

And if you still have a couple extra hard-cooked eggs hanging around, try this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Yes, that’s right, a cookie recipe. The eggs provide an extra tenderness to baked goods and you might just find yourself switching out raw eggs for hard-cooked eggs in other sweet recipes!